City Hall was all about change in 2023 – from hiring a new police chief to firing the city manager to voting on where not to build the arena.
The impact of these and other key decisions by city administrators and City Council in 2023 will roll over into 2024 and beyond, leaving city leaders to find a new city manager and a new site for the arena. In the coming year, city leaders will also continue to mitigate the migrant influx and work to adopt a budget and tax rate to accommodate for a police union agreement that will cost taxpayers millions.
And 2024 will also bring a series of elections that will change the makeup of the City Council in January and again in 2025.
Here are some of the key events that occurred during 2023 that will have an ongoing impact in the community:
City elections
The year 2023 kicked off with three new city representatives who took office following an election that resulted in a shift to the voting majority: Brian Kennedy in District 1 to represent the Upper Valley and West Side; Chris Canales in District 8 encompassing neighborhoods near the University of Texas at El Paso and a portion of the Westside and Downtown; and Art Fierro in District 6, ousting incumbent Claudia Rodriguez in District 6, which roughly covers the area from George Dieter Drive east to Loop 375 and a portion of the Lower Valley,
District 5 city Rep. Isabel Salcido was reelected to represent the Far East area mostly east of Loop 375.
Voters this month will decide who will replace city Rep. Alexsandra Annello, who resigned her seat in October to run for state representative. She will remain in office until her replacement is sworn in.
City Council District 2 candidates Veronica Carbajal and Josh Acevedo are headed for a runoff on Jan. 20. (El Paso Matters)
Veronica Carbajal, a local attorney, and Josh Acevedo, a school board trustee, will face off in the District 2 runoff election Jan. 20. Early voting is Jan. 3-16.
City elected officials can serve two four-year terms and have a 10-year cap if they’re elected to fill an unexpired term. The District 2 runoff winner will fill Annello’s unexpired term through January 2025.
That means voters in District 2 will again head to the polls in November to elect a representative to serve the next term, which would begin in January 2025.
Voters in November will also cast ballots for three other city representative seats, including in Districts 7 and 3 now held by Reps. Henry Rivera and Cassandra Hernandez, respectively. Both will have reached their term limits. The District 4 seat now held by Rep. Joe Molinar, who is serving his first term and can run for re-election, will also be on the November ballot.
El Paso voters in November will also elect a new mayor, as incumbent Oscar Leeser will have served two full terms, although not consecutively.
Scrapping Downtown arena site
The city has yet to resolve where to build the controversial Downtown arena – the last signature bond project approved by voters in 2012.
During its first meeting of 2023, the City Council, with the support of newly elected officials, voted to move the embattled $180 million Downtown Multipurpose Cultural and Performing Arts Center out of the proposed Duranguito neighborhood in the Union Plaza Downtown.
City Reps. Annello, Molinar, Canales and Fierro voted in favor of removing the project from the location. City Reps. Hernandez, Rivera and Salcido voted against it. Kennedy abstained.
The city-owned Sun Metro property that houses Union Depot in Downtown El Paso may be among the locations the city is considering as the future site of the arena. (Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Matters)
The move has left the project in limbo, although the city is considering Sun Metro properties in Downtown as alternate sites. The city is conducting a request for information as part of the process to sell the properties it acquired in Duranguito. The council on Dec. 12 voted to ease the architectural design and building guidelines for the Union Plaza, signaling a possible site for the arena.
City staff may present alternate arena sites in January. The city has about $153 million left for the project.
Firing Tommy Gonzalez
The city remains without a permanent city manager after making the unprecedented decision to fire former City Manager Tommy Gonzalez without cause.
With a tie-breaking vote cast by the mayor, the City Council in February fired Gonzalez, who was hired in 2014 with a starting salary of nearly $239,000. With multiple employment contract amendments over the years, his ending salary was about $442,000.
Former El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez
Gonzalez was named a finalist for another city manager position in Frisco, Texas, in May 2022. The prior council majority made a variety of changes to Gonzalez’s employment contract in an effort to keep him in El Paso, including adding multiple benefits despite two mayoral vetoes.
His last day as El Paso city manager was June 29 and his severance pay was about $900,000. Gonzalez is now the city manager of Midland, Texas.
Cary Westin, a former senior deputy city manager, is currently serving as interim city manager. The City Council has not yet hired a search firm to find a permanent replacement.
New El Paso Police chief
The sudden death of longtime El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen in January left city leadership to find a replacement.
The City Charter places the hiring of the police chief under the city manager’s responsibilities. Gonzalez appointed Peter Pacillas – Allen’s longtime assistant chief – as interim.
Westin took over the process to hire a permanent police chief after Gonzalez left. A national search firm recommended four finalists, and Westin ultimately appointed Pacillas for the job on Oct. 2.
El Paso Police Department’s new chief, Pete Pacillas, answers questions on recruitment challenges and the department’s handling of sexual misconduct charges during an exclusive interview on Wednesday, Oct. 25. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Pacillas, 60, took over a department that has been embroiled in controversy over numerous allegations of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct across EPPD, creating a hostile workplace for women. Several officers have been arrested under various charges, including official oppression, sexual assault, invasive visual recording and domestic violence.
Pacillas has said he aims to listen to victims, provide a fair investigative process and hold officers accountable for their actions.
Police collective bargaining agreement
The El Paso Municipal Police Officers Association and the city, under Gonzalez’s tenure, negotiated the terms for the collective bargaining agreement. It was approved unanimously by the City Council in March as a way to better recruit and retain officers.
The agreement stipulates pay raises for police officers over the next four years, which had a $14 million impact on the city’s budget in fiscal year 2024. The agreement and pay raises accounted for more than half of the $22 million budget increase for public safety in the current fiscal year.
The agreement’s impact to the city’s budget means an additional $8 million in 2025 and about $7 million every year through 2028.
City Charter amendment election
Voters also made key decisions on how the city operates during the City Charter amendment election in May, leaving the city to implement some changes.
Among the changes to the City Charter, the city’s governing document, was the reporting structure of the internal auditor.
Voters approved Proposition J, removing the city manager’s authority over the chief internal auditor, who previously reported to both the City Council and city manager. The auditor now reports to the City Council with oversight by the chair of the Financial Oversight and Audit Committee, while the city manager is charged with implementing changes requested by the council.
Months after the change, the city’s Chief Internal Auditor Edmundo Calderon filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the city alleging retaliation by several city officials, including Gonzalez, in response to a fuel card audit he released in April. He alleges, in part, that the audit is the reason why he has not been given an employment contract he was promised after the charter change.
Voters also approved Proposition I, which removed the cap from the city’s contribution to the El Paso Police and Fire Pension Fund. The charter change means the city will contribute at least 18% of the total amount it expends on wages for the fund participants and future increases will no longer require voter approval through a charter amendment. Previously, 18% was the maximum contribution allowed.
A controversial climate charter amendment, Proposition K, was overwhelmingly rejected by El Paso voters. Prop K aimed to embed controversial policies designed to address climate change into the city’s charter. The proposition made its way on the ballot after environmental organizers gathered about 22,000 verified signatures on a petition.
Ongoing migrant crisis
Over the last year, the region has seen fluctuations of people arriving at the border, and, at times, thousands sleeping on the streets of Downtown El Paso. Since last December, the mayor has issued two disaster declarations and the council has repeatedly renewed an emergency ordinance over the migrant humanitarian crisis, allowing the city to open shelters and enter into no-bid contracts to provide other necessary services.
A worker scans the bracelets of migrants who have signed up to take a chartered bus to Denver at Union Depot in El Paso, Wednesday, Oct. 11. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
To help address the influx, migrants have been bused out of El Paso to other cities like Denver, New York and Chicago on more than 400 charter buses, the majority paid for by the state under Operation Lone Star. The city has paid for at least 40 of those charters with federal funds. More than 18,000 migrants have been bused out of the city since September alone.
While nongovernmental organizations – Annunciation House, Opportunity Center for the Homeless, Rescue Mission of El Paso and Sacred Heart Catholic Church – have provided the majority of shelter services to migrants, the city has also contracted hotels to help with overflow.
The city stood up Nations Tobin Recreation Center in Northeast El Paso as a temporary shelter in September, and during the Christmas holiday activated its new Community Readiness Center at the former Morehead Middle School, which it recently purchased from the El Paso Independent School District.
The council in January will have to vote whether to again extend the emergency ordinances, which must be renewed every 30 days as needed.
City leaders next year may also have to address Senate Bill 4, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott making it a state crime to cross illegally into Texas from Mexico. The law would allow local and state law enforcement officials – including EPPD officers – to arrest people they believe entered the country illegally.
The county of El Paso sued the state challenging its legality, but the city has only said it has concerns with SB 4, with City Attorney Karla Nieman citing lack of training and funding. The City Council will discuss the bill in executive session during its first meeting of the year on Jan. 3.
The post City manager, arena, migrant crisis among key city challenges in 2023 appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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